Delegations from other Western parliaments will visit Crimea in the footsteps of French legislators travelling to the Russian republic on Thursday, senior lawmaker Leonid Slutsky said after the French deputies met Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin.

Delegations from other Western parliaments will visit Crimea in the footsteps of French legislators travelling to the Russian republic on Thursday, senior lawmaker Leonid Slutsky said after the French deputies met Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin.

"It’s not the only initiative," said the head of the lower house committee on Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs. "I hope this is the first symbolic and historic but not the last delegation in the nearest future of west European colleagues to Crimea and Sevastopol," he added, refusing to identify other nations in recalling pressure on the French team before setting off.